The latest: the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the country’s top investigative agency should go ahead with a probe on whether Mulayam Singh Yadav and his two sons – including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav – possess assets far exceeding their known sources of income. Read More »

India’s government will have to stand up in Parliament for its recent economic reform efforts in the coming days.

Both houses of Parliament are due to vote this week on a motion brought by opposition parties against the government’s decision in September to allow foreign supermarkets to set up in India. Read More »

As India’s ruling Congress party faces a wave of protests against last week’s economic liberalization measures, including a nationwide strike today, it can take solace in the fact that it appears increasingly unlikely the government will fall due to the crisis. Read More »

A key reason India’s Congress party-led government, the United Progressive Alliance, is struggling to get anything done is the resistance it faces from within its own coalition – namely, the Trinamool Congress party of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that every move the government makes nowadays is being interpreted as an effort to woo new political support and make it possible to ditch Ms. Banerjee – no matter how subtle the message, how oblique the signal. Read More »

Alphonso, Dasheri and Chausa are so passé. Next time you fancy sliced mango, you may want use the “Akhilesh” variety.

A farmer in Uttar Pradesh has bred a new kind of mango and named it after Akhilesh Yadav, the recently-elected chief minister of the Indian state. Haji Kaleemullah Khan, the fruit producer, is clearly fond of Mr. Yadav. Although he hasn’t tasted the mango yet, he expects it to be “extremely sweet and delightful.”

The reason he named it after Mr. Yadav has to do with the pace at which this mango tree has grown. “In less than five years, this hybrid mango seed has borne fruit… it’s a complete miracle.” Read More »

Utar Pradesh’s newly-appointed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to be trying to take a leaf from Kautilya’s book. In a departure from the iron curtain of his predecessor Kumari Mayawati’s rule, Mr. Yadav has opened the door of his official residence – 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow, the state capital – to meet and interact with voters.

The decision of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to include Raja Bhaiya in his cabinet last month raised questions on his government’s vow that lawlessness would no longer be tolerated in its ranks.

Any Indian voter can tell you which party is represented at poll booths by the hand or the elephant. But while the choice of Indian voting symbols may seem set in stone – literally, in some cases – the ruling Congress could just as easily have had the elephant on its flag today, instead of the palm.

In 1951, an outfit called the All India Forward Bloc (Ruikar Group) used the hand as its symbol, according to an Election Commission of India report. Back then, it looked a little different, with the fingers parted rather than pressed together, and a longer lifeline.

After the jump, read how the party adopted its current symbol.Read More »

One of the reasons the Samajwadi Party did so well in the recent state elections in Uttar Pradesh is because it persuaded voters that lawlessness would no longer be tolerated in its party ranks.

“They were able to win the confidence of the people by saying they won’t allow their grassroots politicians do what they did last time,” said Anil Kumar Verma, professor of political science at Christ Church College in Kanpur.

However, widespread reports of violence in Uttar Pradesh since the party won a landslide victory have fuelled fears that, below the surface, little has changed and that the “Goonda Raj” may be making a comeback. Read More »

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India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.